[엑스포츠뉴스 김정현 인턴기자] Son Heung-min’s vacancy was felt bigger than I thought.
Tottenham Hotspur allowed a hat-trick to Mislav Orsic after a hat-trick against Dynamo Zagreb in the 2nd leg of the UEFA Europa League round of 16 in the 2020/21 season held on the 19th (Korean time). It was defeated by -3 and was eliminated.
Tottenham’s home game in the first game, Harry Kane scored a multi-goal, and Tottenham won 2-0.
What’s more, Zagreb suffered bad news. Dynamo Zagreb coach Joran Mamichi stepped down from the post of manager and sports director after being accused of embezzling the club transfer fee and tax evasion with his brother.
It was a burdensome situation for the head coach to play his managerial debut against Tottenham. So it seemed to be more advantageous for Tottenham.
But Tottenham also had bad news. It was Son Heung-min’s injury. Son Heung-min suffered a hamstring injury in the first half 16 minutes in the North London derby against Arsenal after the first game.
Son Heung-min was expected to return only after the A match period in March, so other players had to fill his gap for two or three games.
Tottenham’s coach Jose Mourinho chose Lucas Maura as Son Heung-min’s replacement in the second leg of his campaign in Zagreb that day. Dele Ali started playing for Moura, who recently played in the midfielder of the central attacking midfield.
However, it was difficult for Moura to fill Son Heung-min’s vacancy. In particular, Moura did not have the strength of Son Heung-min, such as high speed and destructive decision-making power.
In particular, in the presence of Son Heung-min, the opposing teams are always conscious of penetrating the back space and cannot raise the defensive line quickly.
However, on that day, Zagreb showed confidence in Tottenham’s second line, leading to Maura-Ali-Eric Lamela, and had enough of them to block them except in the first half.
Maura, Lamela and Ali did not show much influence in the attack scene, and Mourinho replaced all three players in the second half.
Substitutes Gareth Bale and Giovanni Ro Selso showed threatening appearances, but there were many situations where they had to rely solely on their personal abilities to break through Zagreb’s rising defense.
Tottenham, where Son Heung-min’s place was largely revealed, was eliminated from the Europa League, which was virtually the only way to secure tickets for the UEFA Champions League, and the situation became more focused on the league.
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